Potty Trained

Lucius has been dry for a long time, and has had no accidents for over a week. I told him that if he could number 2 in the toilet, we'd put a sticker on his chart. (This was after a week of M&M's which worked like a charm to get him started). When he filled the sticker chart he could open these new cars (we are not above a little bribery). Yesterday was a mini little potty trained party at our house as the sticker chart is now full.

We know there will probably be a few accidents from time to time, but we've officially potty trained our baby. Now what prize does Marmee and Daddy get??

a few outdoor parks

The boys and I ventured to Tamarack Nature center a couple Friday's ago. Auntie Mick and Casen joined us for a fun little play date in the park. We spent a bunch of time hunting for sticks to build a "house".

Then a few days later we stopped at an "urban park" close to the airport. We were waiting for Daddy's plane to land, and eventually saw it fly over our heads. While we waiting we explored the interesting landscape of the park.

Quotable: Girls

Oliver's explanation of why girls are more special than boys:

"Girls are more special than boys. They have faster running power in their bones. Cause like there's drawings on the inside of their bones that makes them super fast, so fast they can run through day and night"

Interesting buddy, I'm sure that explanation will change as he gets older.

He also said while playing with the neighbor girl:

"Want to play marry? I'm the prince and you're the princess and I have to try to get you to marry me."

Oh no! Slow down kiddo.
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To keep things fair... I love how for the last month or so Lucius says 'Me' instead of 'I' in his sentences. Like "Me want goldfish" or "me went potty". He also uses 'mine' instead of 'my', as in "Me hit mine head with mine hand"

A day at the MN State Fair

Oliver and Daddy took a ride in the sky glider much to the dis satisfaction of Lucius. There could only be two passengers to one seat. Poor second born...

We enjoyed a fun morning at the fair. Early morning Pronto pups and mini doughnuts for breakfast. Yum! We took the traditional "oliver tracker" photo.

The boys enjoyed the Turbo Jumper. They were both SUPER excited to jump on the big trampolines.

Then it was off to the birds of prey show where Hawks and a vulture flew over our heads. The little misters didn't feel like sitting through the whole show, so we ventured over to the horse barn to see larger animals.

A lovely day at the fair, except for maybe the walk back to the car in light rain with two over tired, slightly crabby youngsters.

Oh, and I spent the day finding letters all over the Fair to create a MN State Fair ABCs... check it out:

MN Zoo with Cousins

Daddy went out of town for a week and I tried hard to think of fun things to fill our day. Thursday morning we woke up, drove to pick up Great Aunt Melanie and traveled down to the MN Zoo.

I was super excited at the turn out of so many cousins. Auntie Em brought Brianna and Carl, Marmee's cousin Josie brought her new baby, Great Aunt Mary brought two more cousins.



Such a great day. Josie was so excited to buy all the littles cotton candy. She bought a bag to share. Lucius was not a fan. I took a video and at the end Lucius says "me don't like this" and puts it back into the bag. Oliver LOVED it. Thanks everyone for such a fun day!

Camping with cousins

Last Friday we packed up the car for a camping trip with my sisters, Michelle and Eme, their husbands and kids. It was three days and two nights of fun, relaxing time with all. It was wonderful to camp with kids of the same general age. One of my favorite part was seeing Uncle Hung wrangle the three potty training children to the bathroom at the same time.

Our family happened to arrive first to the camp grounds. After setting up our tent we had enough time to go on a 2 mile hike before anyone else were expected. Saturday morning we spent a good deal of time hiking the trails at the State Park. I love spending time in Nature and being able to relax with family was a huge blessing.

The kids all love playing together and always had an adult willing to take them for a walk to burn off a little excess energy. There were 6 adults and 5 kids... I'm glad we outnumbered the children, it seemed there was always a pair of eyes watching. We even found the evenings around the camp fire a wonderful time to talk and connect over some s'mores.

Each family basically took care of one and a half meals during the weekend. I think that worked out to everyone's advantage. I hope we will be able to go camping as a group again.

Fantastic things called M&M's

Late May Lucius decided to start potty training, not that we his parents were quite ready, but he sure was. It's been about two and a half months and he's about ninety percent on the number 1's. It's been a battle for number 2 training.

UNTIL... sunday morning. Lucius got up and actually did it! Last week we introduced M&M's to the bathroom. We told Lucius "Poop in the toilet and they'll be M&M's for all!" So early sunday morning the family was snacking on a few chocolate drops of happiness.

Later before nap I asked him to go potty and he squeezed out another one. Hooray. Again after nap he tried but he informed me "no poop coming out". I rewarded him for trying, like I said it's been tough couple weeks training so any step in the right direction is praise worthy to me.

He's been clean for the past few days- not saying it's all good. I assume there'll be a few accidents still to come, but I'm happy to report potty training success is on the horizon.

Quotable: same and different

after seeing a large group of wild turkeys cross the road in front of our car this morning, Lucius said:

"yeah, some are good guys, some are bad guys, uh... some nice... uh... they same and different"

I wish we could all see each other for being the very much the same and only slightly different.

Grandparents...

Grandparents are a blessing not only to their grandchildren but also to us as parents... what a joy to have a break from the children we love so much; all while knowing they're enjoying the break in Mormor and Morfar's loving care.

 

 

ComoTown- rides, rides, rides

We happened to find a deal on the unlimited wrist bands for ComoTown, a deal so good we could actually afford it. We brought the boys to the park and they were super excited to ride the rides- they'd seen them before but we usually just walk past the rides.

Oliver jumped on the swings right away- he was super excited and smiling once in the chair. I think he started getting nervous when it lifted off. Then we saw his little smile change from happy to scared once the ride really started going faster. There was another little boy next to him happy and excited... which I think helped ease Oliver's mind. He started to enjoy the ride just before it ended.

After the swings, the little misters rode on a few rides together. I think these were more the boys speed. Lucius was REALLY loving the horse and car ride, slow and steady.

ComoTown has a splash pad. Since water is one of Oliver favorite things he wanted to get wet. We figured, go ahead. He loved this giant bucket that filled up and dumped out a ton of water on their heads. Lucius didn't feel like getting wet... which is slightly out of character.

Rides, rides and more rides the boys ventured to ride...

Before we left the park Oliver wanted to take Lucius on the swings. We asked Lucius several times if he wanted to... he seemed super excited and ready. So we put both little misters into their seats and sat back to watch. Lucius was happy, but once the ride took off he started screaming. He was scared. Poor thing... but then he seemed to start enjoying it. When Daddy went to get them out the first thing Lucius said was "go again!".

We took the boys to the restroom before we left. While in the bathroom the boys started planning their next ride on the swing and Lucius was really getting excited. He ran out of the bathroom to ask daddy if they could ride the swings again. How could we say no... so they took one last ride on the swings and were both happy for such a fun day.